خبر الموقع بالصور في صحيفة سعودي جازيت الصادرة باللغة الإنجليزية
Boycott to Avoid Rip-Off – Website
By Adel Al-Malki and Mohammed Al-Kinani
IN a move reminiscent of the Danish product boycott, a group of Saudis has launched a website calling for the boycott of companies which recently increased prices of their consumer products.
“The boycott aims to put an end to the unreasonable price hike of consumer products,” Abu Hisham, a member of the team wrote on the website.
“We want to protect consumers from some greedy merchants. This way, we are trying to force these traders to reconsider their decision,” he added.
In recent months, the prices of consumer products have skyrocketed. A report issued last month by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry confirmed that the price increase of certain food commodities was due to import costs. The price of American rice started increasing during the fourth quarter of 2006 when import costs rose by 35 percent due to an increase in demand but low supply in the world market.
The price of rice from India went up during the second quarter of this year after exporters in India raised import costs by 33.3 percent. During the first quarter of 2007, Indian exporters raised the price of rice to $100 per ton, pushing import costs to $900 per ton, then recently, to $950 per ton.
The price of powdered milk rose during the second quarter of 2007 due to a price hike in milk derivatives in EU countries when European powdered milk manufacturing companies opted to produce butter instead.
Vegetable oil has also become more expensive since import costs rose by 18 percent due to an increase in demand from India and China even as harvests in exporting countries dropped. The price of vegetable oil started rising by 10 percent during the fourth quarter of 2006, then an additional 1.2 percent during the second quarter of 2007.
The price of dressed chicken increased by 2.1 percent compared to the first quarter of 2007, and by 11.1 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2006. The hike is due to a 60 percent rise in import cost of chicken feeds like yellow corn and soya bean.
Imported meat started increasing slightly during the second quarter of 2007 due to a decrease in supply from Australia. Its price rose by 2.7 percent compared to the fourth quarter of last year, and by 1.2 percent compared to second quarter of 2007.
The website launched by Saudis listed the names of companies and restaurants that have hiked prices and rates.
The website also provides consumers with alternative cheaper products. “What else have they left,” Umm Mosa’ad, a member, wrote on the website. She said the wave has hit all vital products such as food, household items, medicines and house rents.
Some members suggested temporary solutions to high prices.
“Why don’t we change our car oil ourselves?” Abu Abdullah suggested. “This would make us save at least SR5,” he added.
“We love our country; our objective now is to prevent robbers and greedy traders tampering with prices. If we don’t interfere make people aware, these cold-blooded traders would determine how we live,” he said.
In an article on the same website, Abu Ali wrote with a sarcastic slant that prices of blood pressure drugs at pharmacies would, too, go up 500 percent. “We are trying to put an end to this. We are trying to tell consumers that the price rise is unjustified,” the website mentions in its objectives.
The website also criticizes the Ministry of Commerce for “carelessness”, saying that unless the ministry intervenes things will go worse.
“One of the ministry’s roles is to monitor the market and control prices,” Majed, another member of the website wrote. “What we are seeing is that the ministry is careless about what is going on,” he added.
He wanted the ministry to end what he called “Nonsense” and punish these traders.
“If not, we would like the ministry to give us justification for this crisis,” he said.